Forget Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Ewood Park is Lancashire's number 1 attraction at the present time if you want a gigantic stomach churning rollercoaster ride. The paradox with those amusements are that they either give you an exhilarating experience that has you begging for more, or they make you sick as a dog and question your own sanity for paying good money to go on the thing in the first place. After witnessing the first half performance on Saturday, many Rovers fans would have sided with the latter explanation of the ride that they are enduring.

I have always thought of Rovers as being part of my extended family and like most families, there are times when disagreements can occur. Saturday at half time was no exception. Make no mistake about it, people care so much about this football club and the current situation it finds itself in. It is just a pity that those whose trust we invested in, have let us down so badly. Supporters were openly arguing with each other in the stands about how the club has got into this malaise and how we can get out of it. There were chants against the Venkys and Steve Kean, though the latter were ironically started by the tangerine army but people were generally at a loss as to why this football club seemed to be inevitably heading for the oblivion of the 2nd tier of English football.

In 1999, Brian Kidd coined the immortal phrase "rubber dinghy men" as he slated his Rovers side for their capitulation that saw them on the brink of relegation, slamming them as lacking leadership and responsibility. Kidd was angry with his subjects for their spiritlessness and lack of fight. Fast forward 12 years to Saturday and another Rovers boss beginning with the letter K could not accuse his team of capitulating in the same way.

The performance and endeavour was vastly superior at Craven Cottage to that of the soulless and clueless display at Villa Park, seven days earlier. Rovers deserved a point and would have achieved their aim had it not been for the ever shy and retiring Mark Clattenburg. It is not the first time that the Durham official has courted the limelight and deflected attention from the people we pay good money to watch and it certainly won't be the last.

There would have been few complaints from Rovers supporters if Clattenburg had awarded Andy Johnson a penalty in the passage of play preceeding the fateful decision and Steve Kean's very gracious concession that 'technically' he was correct in pointing to the spot does have some legitimacy. But all too often, we have seen paronoid officials get decisions horribly wrong only to compensate teams momments later with very 'soft' free kicks or pens.

But where does this latest setback leave Rovers and their ailing manager?